Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Fed up with fear over lead in your kids toys, BPA in their plastic bottles, gels in their diapers, toxic substances in the dyes in their clothes? Well, you're not alone. Senator Frank Latenberg (NJ) and Representatives Hilda Solis (CA) and Henry Waxman (CA) are proposing an ambitious and timely legislation that if enacted would do nothing less than overhaul the nation's regulatory system for industrial chemicals. The legislation goes under the name of the "Kids Chemicals Act of 2008" (KSCA) and would force companies to demonstrate safety of their products, backed by scientific date, weather those chemicals were made or imported to the U.S. Key in the legislation would also be the assurance that those parties assessing the scientific data on the company side and parties receiving the data on the regulatory side remain without any interest or affiliation with industry (a challenge which had undermined the EPA for years).

The KSCA is meant to go head to head with the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 which allowed chemicals to remain in the marketplace even though they have not been tested for health or environmental impacts. There is no doubt that such legislation will receive the harshest push back from the powers that be, even though the bill comes as a direct response to mounting studies showing escalating rate of childhood illness linked to toxic chemical exposure. Such illness' include; obesity, asthma, autism, thyroid disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and reproductive illness, as well as in utero contamination from bisphenol A, flame retardants, phthalates, and other pervasive chemicals.

“After years of apathy and inaction by the U.S. government, Congress is awakening to the pervasive health impacts from dangerous chemicals,“ according to Daryl Ditz, at the nonpartisan Center for International Environmental Law. “The Kid Safe Chemicals Act would help weed out the worst chemicals, reward companies that offer safer products, and help to regain U.S. leadership on this global problem.”

Here is a fascinating video "Contaminated Without Consent" - on the dangers of hidden risks in home and office contaminants. This video was produced by Sanford Lewis of Strategic Video for the Chemical Safety Workgroup, a coalition of public health and science based NGOs working on toxics protections.